Unmanned automation plants that use a B & R controller allow remote service or diagnosis by utilizing e-mail to inform or alarm the responsible persons about certain plant conditions.

Many B & R automation applications are equipped with Ethernet bus systems, and therefore often have access to network servers. If the SMTP server is activated in this network, B & R controllers can send text messages via e-mail by using the SMTPsendmail function block in the user application.

These text messages are composed according to the RFC821 standard and basically include one or more recipient e-mail addresses, the e-mail address of the sender (the B & R controller), and the IP address of the SMTP server that sent the e-mail to the Internet. Furthermore, a subject and the actual text content are stated.

The SMTPsendmail function block can be used in all programming languages available with B & R, and is included free of cost in the Ethernet Library, starting with Service Release 1 of B & R Automation Software Version 2.2.